Sublime

Shall the world be confined to one Paris or one Oxford forever? Cannot students be boarded here and get a liberal education under the skies of Concord? Can we not hire some Abelard to lecture to us?

the pitfalls of education (‘any education that neglects the experience of delight will be a dry and tasteless diet with no nourishment in it’).

What Augustine offers us is a slant of detachment—a recognition of the power of sexual desire with a resistance to letting it define anyone.

By the end of his lecture, I did care a bit more about Edmund Spenser and his work and the revival of medieval motifs and how a poet ought to be a moral teacher. That’s how Mr. Lewis is; he captures the mind as quick as a heartbeat.

Here’s what I can’t say to you in front of your face: I’m worried about the future of your maximum taste. People in my and earlier generations, at least those lucky enough to get a college education, got some exposure to the classics, which lit a fire that gets rekindled every time we sit down to read something really excellent. I worry that it’s